Eugene F. Rivers III

writer, speaker, and activist

Pentecostal pastor

co-chair of the National TenPoint Leadership Foundation

A former gang member from Philadelphia who studied at Harvard, Eugene F. Rivers III is pastor of the Azusa Christian Community in Dorchester, an inner-city neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife, Jacqueline C. Rivers, and their three children. His programs to get churches involved in curbing youth violence have been emulated nationwide. Rivers has been active for over thirty-five years workingwithin local communities and with the federal government on issues of domestic and foreign policy. He advised both the Bush and the Clinton administrations on their faith-based initiatives and issues of foreign policy in connection with the African AIDS crisis. In his work to shine a spotlight on street violence and underprivileged youth, Rivers has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and Fox. He is a contributing editor to Sojourners magazine. Rivers is the co-founder of the Boston TenPoint Coalition and co-chair of the National TenPoint Leadership Foundation.